CWD-Positive Animals Excluded from Feed Use

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced in November that material from chronic wasting disease (CWD)-positive animals may not be used in any animal feed or feed ingredients. FDA considers animal feed and feed ingredients containing material from a CWD-positive animal to be adulterated, and any such adulterated feed or feed ingredients should be recalled or otherwise removed from the marketplace.

FDA strongly advises that materials from untested or CWD-test-negative free ranging deer and elk in areas declared by states to be endemic for CWD or a CWD eradication zone no longer be entered into the animal feed system. Under present circumstances, FDA does not believe that feed previously made from such materials needs to be recalled. The agency continues to consider materials from free range deer and elk in areas not declared by states to be endemic for CWD or a CWD eradication zone (non-endemic areas) to be acceptable for use in non-ruminant animal feeds in accordance with current agency regulations (Title 21, Part 589.2000 of the Code of Federal Regulations). Under present circumstances, FDA does not believe that non-ruminant feed made from free range deer and elk in non-endemic areas would need to be recalled if a state later declares the area from which the deer or elk came to be endemic for CWD or a CWD eradication zone.

CWD is a neurological (brain) disease of farmed and wild deer and elk that belong in the cervid animal family. The disease has been found in farmed and wild mule deer, white-tailed deer, North American elk, and in farmed black-tailed deer. CWD belongs to a family of animal and human diseases called transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs). These include bovine spongiform encephalopathy in cattle, scrapie in sheep and goats, and classical and variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob diseases in humans. TSEs are very rare, but are always fatal. Although CWD shares certain features with other TSEs, it is a distinct disease. There is no known treatment for these diseases, and there is no vaccine to prevent them. In addition, there are no validated diagnostic tests for CWD or other TSEs that can be used to test for the disease in live animals or humans.

Only deer and elk are known to be susceptible to CWD by natural transmission. However, there is little scientific evidence to show whether CWD is or is not a hazard to humans or non-cervid animals such as cattle and pigs. Therefore, the FDA believes it is prudent that CWD-positive deer and elk not be used in animal feed. The agency plans to issue a Compliance Policy Guide on this issue at a later date.

December 2002 Render